Four Suspected MS-13 Members Facing Federal Charges in Connection With 2015 Murder

Montgomery County man was found dead in Northern Virginia

Four alleged members of the MS-13 gang are facing federal charges in connection with the 2015 killing of a Montgomery County man.

Three men from Montgomery County and one from Northern Virginia allegedly conspired and helped to kill a man who was found dead in September 2015 in Woodbridge, Virginia.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s office announced the charges, which had been filed earlier this month. The charges, which come as part of a violent racketeering conspiracy case, include one count of conspiracy to commit murder in aid of racketeering and one count of murder in aid of racketeering, according to court documents.

The men allegedly took part in the murder of Guillermo Hernandez Leyva, whom the indictment identifies as “G.H.L.” He had been reported missing on July 18, 2015, and investigators believe he was killed two days earlier.

The four men were arrested across four different states (Texas, New Jersey, Indiana and Maryland) in August on murder charges in Virginia, WTOP reported at the time.

The indictment does not detail the specifics of the murder, but states the suspects carried it out “for the purpose of gaining entrance to and maintaining and increasing position in MS-13,” an international gang with a presence in Maryland and Virginia.

WTOP reported that at least two other men were charged with the murder in Virginia—Carlos Ulises Ochoa Pineda, 23, who was arrested in Montgomery County, and Jose Elias Ayala-Gomes, 21, of Rockville—though neither was named in the federal indictment.